Yay, I'm finally punctual with my update this time! I can thank the weird urge to write that I've been having for the past few weeks for this, actually I think I'm going to start writing the next chapter just as I'm finished posting this one... I'm hopeless, aren't I?

Well, leaving all that aside, once again I thank you all for your sweet reviews. I'd like to thank the people who have reviewed as guests and sadly I couldn't reply your reviews. Caliope07, who is always greatly worried about Claire's safety, I suggest you not to be afraid 'cause she's a bitch and she'll be fine... can't say the same for the people around her though... she has this tendency to emotionally destroy other people when her own life is out of place, I guess you've noticed.

Another guest review informed me that there were several things in the story they didn't understand and I would've loved to explain it all to them, but since I couldn't reply I thought to write down a summary of the story, It might also seem appropriate after the climax it just went through. Well, here goes: Previously in Seize The Moment. (In Damon's voice from the vampire diaries)

Starting from Claire's past, so far what we know is that she had two siblings, she lived in a mansion and was raised by a maid. She learned how to read at a very young age and was caught sneaking in a library by a man named Ro, who eventually becomes her friend but ultimately, he just vanishes leaving her with nothing but her incredibly disrupted life and a book. So, instead she just starts hating every single person around her. Her sister Katie, is a very mysterious little girl with horrifyingly dark abilities but she is exceptionally fond of both her sister and brother. Luca returns those feelings, Claire... not so much. Claire has once mentioned that Luca and Katie are both her half-siblings, so that's also something that we'll find out about later, or quite soon. At the age of ten, she is incredibly clever and some of the flashbacks reveal her step-mother, Ingrid, who has again been mentioned in one of the recent chapters, she makes Claire sign a contract and allows her to at last leave the estate at last. Now what is the Vortex and what does Ingrid have to do with it, this is all part of things that we'll discover soon enough. According to Claire's version of her past, she happened to kill her sister and believe that there is some dark spirit inside her, but did she? And is there? She runs away and finds herself at an orphanage when she regains consciousness; after a few tragical weeks she gets adopted and is ready as ever to start fresh with her life and forget about her past but that seems close to impossible with all the nightmares that keep haunting every night.

Seven years later, she has developed into a shy, awkward and sarcastic teenager who avoids company, now that becomes exceedingly difficult when an annoyingly hot boy, who she meets at a supermarket then again at school, starts to enjoy teasing her and getting amusing replies. Why are Gon and Killua in this little city? And who is the man they are trying to keep tabs on? Everything will make sense at due time. After that, you know how Killua and Claire's bickering alters into a romantic relationship; but Killua's struggle to hide his past from her becomes even more difficult when her father dies during an attack at the annual auction conducted by the Zoldycks and a vindictive man from Killua's past is desperately trying to avenge his family. Moving on, he lures Claire into his apartment with the motive of killing her but his plans are delayed as his conscience kicks in some remorse and he ends up telling her about Killua's true identity. Now, why were Killua and Gon out of town when this happened? Actually they were not, they decided to sneak in the apartment of the man they had been tailing, what for? That's all for later. Killua shows up at the last moment and out of rage, ends up killing the man. Now pause.

Many people pleaded that Claire should forgive Killua, but come on guys, don't we know just what a big asshole she is? We do, we do. Whatever you do not understand from here on, please ask me and I'll be glad to help you out. I do hope I explained well enough?

This chapter has not been checked by my betas as they are both busy, but I hope it is still bearable. Wow, this author's note seems longer than the chapter itself... I'm just gonna add that I had so much fun writing this chapter because I was super inspired after reading some awesome novels in the past weeks; just in case you haven't read them I'll tell you the names: The fault in our stars, And the mountains echoed, Wuthering Heights and last night I read The perks of being a wallflower and it kind of changed my life, if you read it, hope it does the same for you. I'd love for you to recommend me some books, all I wanna do these days is read. Guys, I'm not shutting up anytime soon so please, just save yourselves. Also I tried driving for the first time and nearly hit the car against the side walk... my brother says the next time he'll teach me is when hell freezes over, well, I hope that happens soon! Dig in guys! (I'm too weird for my own good or yours).

Chapter: 17

"Panacea."

The brunette wiped the tears from off her cheek and attempted to smile at the blue eyed boy who stared at her with an expression of concern.

They were seated in his car, rain splattering furiously on the windshield and the dark, velvety mantel of the night settled around them.

"Talk to me," he encouraged, gently caressing her wet cheek.

"I'm so sorry." Her voice was rough and weak. "Calling you over at three in the morning was a major dick move," she apologised. "I just didn't know what to do."

He curled his fingers around her hand. "Yeah, well you don't have one so stop acting like one."

She chuckled through her streaming eyes. "I just saw him—my dad, it felt so real and I just walked down to his study thinking he was calling me and—I was just sitting there like an idiot and—" she paused trying to catch her breath. "He wasn't there." She sobbed involuntarily and tried to hide her face in her hands.

"Is crying making you feel better?" He asked softly.

She grabbed his hand and shook her head. "No, please just make me laugh again." She demanded in a small voice.

He removed the hair covering the side of her face and took out his cell phone. "Let's see." He tapped the screen several times. "What to do when a girl starts crying," he mumbled. "There, now according to this blog girls tend to cry for the following reasons." He jerked his eyebrows upward in amusement. "When they experience mood swings during their period," he recited and then looked at the teenager for approval.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Well, a bowl of ice cream is thought most effective in such situations; moving on, another reason for a girl to spontaneously burst out crying is if she has just recently been dumped. To get over that.. "He shot her a glance from the corner of his eye noiselessly mouthing something. ".. Burn his clothes—what the hell?" He looked at her stupified. "Girls actually do this stuff?"

She snatched the phone from his hand. "Give me that, you've been making this all up—" she declared examining the content. "Fucking—wow." She breathed. "Okay this has clearly been written by a guy who has been single his whole life and is most probably fond of eating spinich from plastic bags at very late times of the night," she muttered.

"But seriously this horrifies me, girls are dangerous," he noted.

She rolled her eyes again. "Remember that time we nearly got detention because of you?" She recalled.

"But I talked our way out of it," he reminded.

"Yeah, but when I was waiting outside the main office Gon showed up saying he wanted to shift his biology classes at some other period."

The boy narrowed his eyes in concentration. "What? Where was I when that happened?" He asked amused.

"Probably talking our way out of trouble? But whatever, when I asked Gon why, he told me there was this girl in his class who hated him and kept throwing paper balls at him."

"Because of a—" he started furiously.

"Just listen to the whole thing, you moron," she interjected. "It turned out that girl actually really liked him and kept throwing her phone number at him."

His eyes widened for a moment before they both threw their head back and roared with laughter.

"No way," he whispered between loud chuckles. "I can't believe that guy."

"He's so tactless it's adorable," the girl spoke trying to keep a straight face. "In short, this is how dangerous girls can be."

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. "I'm truly speechless," he confessed.

After a short silence the girl turned to look at his face. "Doesn't it scare you?" She debriefed.

"What?"

"The thought of being happy," she revealed. "It's like something dark is just waiting at the corner, ready to snatch it all away from you."

"Are you afraid of being happy?" His expression was very serious now.

"I'm afraid of believing that life is really as good as it seems. I can't just grasp it anymore, you know? Like the calm before the storm," she ventured in a hushed tone, her stare hollow as she watched the rain pour heavily on the glass.

Killua's P.O.V:-

I brought my shaking hands to the dashboard, as I attempted to reach for my cell phone. The screen of it was now stained with blood from every part that my fingers made contact with it. I hit redial on the first contact in call log.

I shifted slightly to face the unconscious and fragile figure lying on the passenger seat beside me. Her hair was covering part of her visage and her wrists were bruised.

The dial tone ringed in my ears as I forced myself to ignore how painful my breathing was all of a sudden.

"Did you find her?" Asked a concerned voice from the other line.

"Gon," I said barely louder than a whisper, his name sent a minute ray of comfort through my body.

A few seconds passed before he replied, I could almost hear how his breathing sped up. "Killua is— what's going on?"

"Gon," I repeated breathlessly. "I killed him."

Another halt. "Who?" His voice was too quiet.

"The stalker from York New, I killed him."

The silence that followed seemed to rip me apart.

"He had her, he was going to kill her, I don't know what happened— I killed him; she saw me, I— he must've told her everything."

"Where's Claire?" He spoke at last and it seemed to me as if part of my sin had already been forgiven.

"She's here— she fainted." I looked at her extremely pale skin, it looked like the last bit of blood had been drained from within her.

"Killua," Gon spoke with authority now. "Listen to me, take her home and clean the mess you've made."

"She will—" I began, I felt weak.

"Leave it right as it is for now, let her go. You have to go back and get rid of the body before someone finds out."

"I have to fix—"

"You can't fix anything for now!" He bellowed. "Killua get in your senses and stop torturing yourself over something you don't have control over."

I closed my eyes and let his words sink in me like a deep poison. After a second the line went dead and as I stared at the girl lying peacefully before me, I thought I did too.

Claire's P.O.V:-

It never occurred to me in my life that my mind resumed the same thoughts it had just as it slipped in to unconsciousness, but as my eyes darted open, the prior pain I had felt in what seemed like a century ago, surged through my body like a maddening fire. It felt like my existence itself was the greatest tragedy to have occurred in my life. In the next instant, which could've been shorter than the time taken by the clock hand to tick, I was suddenly vividly aware of my surroundings.

My hand reached out to the headboard for support and my gaze fell on the bandages strapped across both my wrists.

It was all a lie. I shut my eyes as the burning threatened something unspoken and unbearable. I clung harder to the wood. You won't shed a tear for that monster. But the more I opposed it, the more it rebelled and before my inner clash could go any further I felt the sickening wetness on my cheek, the first tear streamed down followed by another then another and as I clasped a hand over my mouth, a sob escaped without any warning. I broke down into hysterical cries, feeling powerless and not having any control over my own body.

"No!" I scratched and peeled off the protective material from my arms as wildly as possible. "NO!" I rushed to my feet towards the maple drawers and knocked off everything within my reach. My knees gave up and I sank lower and lower. I gripped the end of the side table and threw it open, I grabbed the pair of scissors as soon as my eyes located them.

Separating both the sharp ends from one another, I brought one to my already injured wrist. Did I possess the strength to end this misery? I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"Take care of your mom."

I gritted my teeth.

"Tell Hana I love her."

I wiped my face with my hand. Every part of me, my skin, he had touched everything. I hated myself immensely when my thoughts took me to him. With shaking hands I seized every strand of my hair that came to my hold and cut it off with all my strength. I staggered towards the opposite wall, staring at my own reflection. The pale faced girl with the wild short hair looked back at me and in the matter of seconds threw questions at me to which I lacked the answers. Who are you? Who was I? It pierced me deeper than it should have as I realized just how like the fog settled onto the window glass, my life had the blurry outlines of an unknown beginning and a destructive flow. Slowly, but deeply, I felt myself settling into the dark aspect that I had been struggling to keep myself away from. "You're a monster." a muffled whisper came from a great distance and time away and this time I didn't deny it.

The formal and useless knock sounded on my door as the usual blonde revealed herself. "Claire?" She said in a guarded voice.

I didn't bother to answer as I sat lying against the headboard of my bed.

She walked in and drew back the curtains, for the first time in five days, I saw light as it pricked my dark adjusted eyes. "What are you doing? Get out." I ordered pulling the sheets over my head.

She sighed loudly and I knew an emotional lecture was on the way. "Honey, I know it's hard for you- you've never been through this but I think shutting yourself in your room for five days is enough proof that Killua—"

"Don't say his name!" I shouted.

"I—Minoru is here, he wants to talk to you."

"I couldn't care less. Get out and next time don't bother knocking since you're gonna barge in anyway."

"Claire, please. He cares about you, come talk to him, honey." She pleaded.

"Just stop acting, okay? We both know you're the one who called him here and I don't give a shit about—" I said revealing myself.

"Claire, just stop it!" She raged. "Just give me a break, okay? I have to deal with work, this hormonal pregnancy and I'm trying my best, I know it's hard for you too but that doesn't mean you get to lash out on me." Her eyes were glistening with tears on the verge. "I honestly don't know how to do it right, I— and you just with everything you're doing with yourself; you cut off your hair and it worries me okay? Sorry for not being an expert on how to raise a teenager, I'm trying."

She gave me a piercing look then shut the door behind her and disappeared.

I got out of bed and saw a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I walked by, it was enough to tell me why she was worried.

When I got downstairs I saw my mom crying with her hands over her face and Mr. Domoto consoling her. They both got alert as I sat down beside them without a single word.

"How are you?" He asked in a soft voice as my mom watched me carefully.

"You can skip that shit."

"Claire—" she began before he gestured for her to stop.

"I know, you're going through a difficult time right now—" he repeated the same old speech until I decided I had enough of this, enough of it all.

"You know? Wow, okay, so why are you here? Are you here to give me relationship advice? Or are you here to tell me exactly how to spend my time being a loner like you did?"

"Claire!" My mom exclaimed furious.

"Yeah, well I don't need you okay? This is supposed to be my dad's job and he's not here so you don't get to take his place." I stood up. "Stop trying to act like my dad because the truth is that you're just a sad piece of shit who got dumped and can't get over it."

"Shut up Claire!"

Mr. Domoto simply got up wordlessly, he looked at me, his face lacking expression. His gaze seemed to linger for a century until he walked out of sight, leaving the door wide open.

My mom looked astonished from the door to my face. "Get out of my sight immediately," she commanded in a stable tone.

I attempted to control my breathing and looked at her.

"Just get the hell out of here before I do something we'll both regret!"

After that she stopped talking to me at all and to escape the terrible and meaningless silence, I went to school the next day after yet another small break of a week. After fifth period I decided to skip class and just sit in front of my locker because I felt like it. Attending lectures was useless since I hadn't recovered my previous course and decided not to. The curious looks didn't bother me much, I knew even I would gape at myself with the news circulating after careful observation that I was now keeping my distance from him as did he. The predictable story of the calculus teacher leaving town had successfully been circulated by him and excluding the fact that girls no longer glared at me as I was no more the thief of their heart throb, everything was back to normal.

"Claire?" Said a voice that I seemed not to recognise.

I looked up as Naomi stared closely at me, her pungent perfume giving me the start of a headache. "Not today," I warned her as I stood up and opened my locker just for the sake of looking busy. I didn't want her smug talk on how her way to him was nice and clear.

"I heard about—"

I clenched my teeth, anger radiating through me like it was meant just to be there. "Yeah, you heard right. You must be in pure bliss," I muttered.

She looked at me worried with an expression that looked somewhat like concern. "I'm really sorry, I know it must be hard for y—"

In the next second, without actually thinking, I slammed the locker door in her face, literally.

"Worst attendance record so far, grades clearly declining and now she's shown severe violence towards a student," the coordinator listed as I sat in his office with my mom. Her face was crumpled and she looked devastated. "I'm so sorry," she repeated once again, her voice very weak. "She's just sustained a very heavy loss, you know her father.."

"I understand," said the dark haired man, now staring at me. "But that still does not give her the excuse to display aggression over other people."

I wanted to suggest adding rushed and unreasonable before aggression, because it turned out that Naomi came to talk about my father, not Killua..

"Suspension." I only returned mentally to the conversation when this word was mentioned and the final decision was to suspend me for three days.

When we both got out my mom strode away without a word and I saw her get in the car and drive away.

Clearly, I was going to be walking home, in the rain, without an umbrella.

I just reached the parking lot when someone called my name. I stopped to see Gon walking to me.

"If you're here to protest and justify from his behalf then you're wasting your time," I clarified and resumed my pace.

"I—no. I'm not here for him," he quickly convinced.

"Then, why are you here?"

"I'm—I—need a favour," he said now walking beside me. I barely reached his shoulder but his height wasn't a dominating feature, it was his innocent face.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to keep my tone balanced.

"I'll explain, if you just come have a ride with me," he suggested gesturing towards his car.

"I'm not getting into that car," I stated firmly as I looked back at the familiar sleek black car.

"But-" he protested.

"Well, just walk." I shrugged.

"But it's raining—"

"I don't care, if you wanna talk, deal with a little rain."

He nodded. "Alright, it's a long story."

"Is it about him?" I demanded briefly.

"It's about me, I think— I think you deserve to know the truth, about us and why we're here," he struggled with the words.

"I really don't—"

"Please," he begged. "I'm not trying to get you to forgive him or us for that matter, but please just listen to what I have to say and all I need is one small favour."

I looked at his anxious expression. "You're not really his cousin, are you?"

He dropped his gaze. "No.." If this was how he was going to react over every lie that I had been told then I was sure his eyes would fall off by the time he had finished.

Killua's P.O.V:-

"YOU DID WHAT?" I asked Gon after he finished telling me the tale of one of his new massive accomplishments as we walked idly on the wet pavement.

"I told her we needed her help to break in the office and also, I told her everything, I told her the truth." There was an unusual gleam in his eyes.

"Why the hell did you lie to her? You know we don't need her." I tried to pretend I hadn't heard the last part.

"I know, but she thinks we do and she seemed quite amused after hearing the truth," he said smugly.

"You— why? And you didn't tell— did you?" I stammered, digging my hands in my pockets.

"Because that was the only excuse I could think of to get you to two alone somewhere." He looked at me as if comprehension would dawn upon me any time now. "And no, I didn't tell her anything about you, you'll have to do that yourself and you're welcome."

"This is stupid, why exactly would you do this?" I asked frustrated, my hands were sweating.

"Because you need to talk to her just as much as she needs to talk to you."

"I don't— she— we don't, okay?"

He rolled his eyes. "She slammed her locker door into a girl's face and got her a black eye and also got herself suspended and— well, you'll see.. And look at you, you can't stop stuttering, you barely complete any of your sentences."

"I don't want to talk to her," I opposed. "Trust me, it's no use."

"Well, I don't care what you want Killua, you owe her an explanation at the very least."

"I didn't want this, I— let me remind you that you were the one who told me to—" I justified.

"Yeah, I was the one who convinced you to let yourself off the hook for once, but was wanting to see you happy such a big crime?" He stopped pacing and stared at me.

I took a breath and held my hand to my forehead.

"Give yourself a break, you know, sometimes the most unlikely of things happen in the most unexpected time."

"You're talking about a colossal miracle."

"Accurate way to summarize your life," he complemented as he resumed walking.

I couldn't help but give a short laugh. "What are you doing, you dufus?"

"Giving your life a right turn; it's either this or a punch in the face," he added.

I stopped still for a moment and the familiar pang of how I didn't deserve him hit me harder than ever.

"You coming?" He called from ahead.

"Get lost already, dick." I murmured and followed suit.

Claire's P.O.V:-

I put on my boots at half past ten with my mind full of things I barely comprehended, the main being why exactly I was helping Gon out. As I walked down the stairs I reasoned that the whole father-son matter had intrigued me, at least the guy had been honest with me or maybe he was just an expert at pulling off a perfect puppy dog face.

My train of thought came to a halt when I saw my mom on the couch, watching TV and successfully ignoring me.

"I'm going out," I mumbled.

She didn't answer, she didn't even seem to notice I was there.

"It's pretty late and I'm going out," I repeated, slightly louder.

I could've been talking to the wall and be more hopeful for a reply.

"You should at least ask where I'm going," I pushed.

"I couldn't care less," she said quoting my prior words.

"I'm off to do something illegal." The ironic part was that I wasn't even lying.

"You do that," she retorted indifferently.

"Okay, then," I concluded and then exited as ignored as ever.

At the last moment I had decided I would be walking to school and there were two reasons for that: the first was that I hated driving and the second being that my being gone and careless would definitely keep my mother alerted and if my plan went alright she and I would be back on speaking terms by the time I returned. Yeah, I was too smart for my own good.

When I arrived at the parking lot Gon waved at me as to acknowledge him, which I found rather unnecessary since we weren't working with a crowd.

Beside him a fair haired figure stood casually leaned against the car; I made a mental note not to make eye contact with him.

"There's a problem actually," I informed Gon making sure that he knew I was addressing him and only him. "I couldn't find my laptop and I really—"

Right in the middle of my sentence Killua pushed a rectangular object in my hand, which I could tell, without looking, was my laptop.

"I— the." I quickly shut myself up, I wasn't prepared for unexpected stuff, okay?

That was when my gaze fell on his coat and the deep blue scarf around his neck.

"What are you trying to prove by wearing that?" I blurted out without a single thought.

He raised a silver eyebrow and I could already feel the idiotic outcome of my question. "That it's cold?" He said in an annoying matter of factly tone.

Damn it, I blew it. I gritted my teeth and followed Gon as he headed to the front gate. In one moment he swept past the wall and disappeared and in the next he beaconed me forward as he swung the gate open.

I just gaped at him and then casting a gaze back at Killua and seeing his bored expression, I guessed this wasn't something out of the ordinary for them.

The concept of a silent, noiseless school was even weirder than being here in the dark.

"So you just need me to disable the cameras?" I asked as we entered the surveillance room.

He nodded and got out as I sat comfortably down on the familiar chair. I had already been here more than once.

I decided not to bother with asking them how they had managed to unlock all the rooms.

I connected the server to my laptop and disabled the cameras, freezing the current images on the screen in place, just in case someone decided to go through tonight's recording.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Killua shifting a few steps back tapping on the screen of his phone.

"Aren't you supposed to be with Gon?"

He looked up at me and I held my breath. So long with trying not to make eye contact. "I don't see how that concerns you," he responded formally.

My face felt hot. "Well, trying to rid myself from the company of an asshole is totally my concern." I mumbled.

"Sad you feel the need to call yourself that, let me know when you succeed in relieving the world from such a pain in the ass.." He didn't even care to look up.

"Just so you—" He was just so fucking infuriating.

"Don't trouble yourself, you know you can't beat me when it comes to words," he waved me off.

I stared at him for a moment. "Yeah, you're right, especially when it comes to lies."

For just the fraction of a second, I had the satisfaction of seeing his expression alter until he composed his face again. He pretended not to have heard me.

"Why so speechless now?" I pushed. "You were bragging just a while ago. It's good to know you have something close to a conscience in there."

"Stop it," he said very quietly.

I clenched my fists. "Why? The truth doesn't settle well with you, does it?"

The silence that followed was enough to drive me insane. "I guess I can't blame you though, that's the way you were raised. Lying, killing, you learned that when others learn to walk, didn't you? Well, you can go to hell along with that fucking bunch of bastards that you call family—" I burst out.

The next event seemed to happen in a blur: Killua kicked one of the chairs in front of him to a side and it collided with the nearby wall, the noise seemed to echo throughout the whole city. He slammed his hand on the table and glared at me in a manner that took the breath out of me, making him look like the true assassin he was. "Not another word about my family."

I hated the way my hands started shaking. "You guys can go ahead and murder and destroy people's lives and I don't even get to—" I answered back while wiping the streaming tears on my face. "You coward!" I felt weak and helpless.

He grabbed both my arms and pushed me against the wall. "I've had just about enough of your shit, do you understand that? Who are you trying to fool here? Do you really think blaming me is going to be enough cover for you to hide from your own self?"

I uselessly tried to pry away his fingers. "What the hell are you talking about?" I spat back.

"Still playing innocent now? Well, let me clear it all out for you, do you really think staying in the side lines is going to keep you nice and safe? I've known you've been lying since the very moment you told me the absurd story about your adoption."

I attempted to keep my gaze steady as I looked at him. "What—"

"Don't," he interrupted. "You know one of the perks of being a good liar is that you can tell apart your own kind very easily; takes one to know one, right?" For one instant he leaned in so close I thought he was going to kiss me but then he just released me and drew back.

Before I realised what happened, my fist had struck against his cheek and his head tilted to a side. I couldn't even control my breathing when I suddenly became very aware of the severe pain surging through my whole hand.

I gasped looking at my trembling fingers. "What—" I bit my tongue to refrain from crying. "What the hell are you made of?" Water was pooling in my eyes and my knuckles felt like they had been crushed.

"I think you broke your knuckle," he said gently holding up my hand.

"Don't touch—" I protested, trying to keep myself steady through the pain.

"Come with me." He dragged me out of the room.

I moaned feeling the burning intensify with every second that passed.

The cold wind whipped my hair as I climbed into the passenger seat of his car. I honestly didn't have an ounce of strength left to argue; the ache seemed to be radiating to my head now.

"Just stay there—nothing happened—I just have to take a detour, wait for me there," Killua explained with his phone between his ear and shoulder as he started the car. He threw his mobile on the dashboard and drove swiftly out of the parking lot.

"Where are you taking me?"

"To the hospital obviously," he said remotely looking forward. "You need to get that fixed up and braced." He gestured towards my hand with his eyes.

"This is all your fucking fault," I muttered quietly.

"I wasn't the one who invited you to try off my face as a punching bag," he retorted.

When I examined his face, there wasn't even a trace of colour where I had hit him with apparently all my force. Although he seemed a bit thinner and his cheek bones more visible, if I wasn't imagining it, he looked tired.

I winced as a pricking sensation seemed to be throbbing in my fist.

He looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Just hold on a minute," he assured me.

"Do you have any ice?" I asked like the idiot I was.

"Don't have a freezer installed in this thing yet," he answered annoyed and then held up his hand.

I just stared at him in confusion before I realised he was demanding my consent to touch me, I recalled how extremely cold his hands always were.

Without another thought, I touched the back of my hand with his. His skin sent a soothing sensation in my hand and for the smallest of moments it felt like his touch was my panacea, the cure to all the problems swirling around my life, but in the next instant thoroughly consuming hatred throbbed in me.

The car stopped right in front of the local hospital, just as he moved to get out, I stopped him.

I wanted to hurt him more than anything in the world. "You know losing my dad wasn't the worst thing that happened to me," I told him, fully holding his attention. "Meeting you was."

He stopped still and then out eyes met.

It was just a glimpse, but I saw in the sapphire blue ocean of his eyes a thousand pebbles of tragedies and hurt, where I had just thrown an addition of my own. It sunk and was out of sight as soon as it came. He sat there motionless until a movement in my peripheral vision made me jerk my head: the streetlights were blinking furiously.

Killua straightened instantly, clutching at the steering wheel and everything around us became abnormally still.

I got out of the car silently as I felt the pain surging, without shutting the door. I kept it wide open and stared at him completely expecting him to get out and escort me inside the hospital.

He leaned towards me and it seemed as if he was reaching for my hand, but as a blow to both my selfishness and self esteem, he reached for the handle, slammed the door in my face and drove away.

It occurred to me, as I stood in the haunting night, that to an onlooker I might have just been a person to whom he offered a ride or someone he merely asked for directions; two strangers joined temporarily by fate only to never see one another again.

The boy with the hair as silver as the frost casted his gaze on the brunette as she was staring at the downpour from the car window.

"Seriously? You wanna add being happy to the long list of things that scare the hell out of you?" His tone was very calm.

She turned to look at him with her lips pursed. "I'm only afraid of blood," she maffled quietly.

He raised an eyebrow at her in challenge. "Actually, you're scared of blood, the dark, cats, needles, staring crowds, cafeterias, cars, the occasional breathing of your cell phone and possibly threatening physical contact with water. Did I miss anything?"

She blinked at him, half embarrassed and half in awe. She was amused at how he had thought her important enough to remember these little details about her. "Yeah, it sounds like quite a broad subject when you say it like that..." She murmured.

"My point is, nobody has any idea when they're going to end up dead and even they reach the extreme, it's still a pretty short life, Claire." He crossed his arms behind his neck. "What I'm saying is: we don't have an eternity so what we do is make memories, seize the moment."

She stopped breathing for a moment then glanced at him affectionately. "I'm annoying as hell, aren't I?"

"Pretty much, yeah," he agreed.

"You should kick me out of your car right now," she advised.

"You're right, shut the door in your face and leave you here in the rain, make you walk back home."

Barely a minute passed that she got out and shut the door behind her.

"Hey—Claire!" He called, his eyes widening. "I was kidding," he convinced as he followed her outside.

She stood right next to the hood of his car, her long, brown hair completely drenched along with the sweater she was wearing over her pyjamas.

He walked to her while unzipping his jacket. "What the hell?" He asked with his eyebrows raised.

"I love the rain," she told him, her face soaked. "I've made one of my best memories ever here."

He took off his jacket and placed it around her. "You'll catch a cold," he scolded.

She ignored him and moved her hands to touch his face, tracing his cheekbones, his jaw and then his lips. "I—," she whispered slowly. "Killua, I—" she breathed irregularly and silent tears rolled down her cheeks but were successfully disguised by the rain.

"What is it?" He intertwined his fingers with hers.

Her lips trembled with the weight of the words she was about to say. The idea of surrendering herself to him horrified and pleased her at the same time.

She got on her toes and put her lips against his.

He lifted her up so she could easily reach him.

There, with her hands frozen and her heart on fire she realized he had missed one thing in the list of things she was afraid of: her fear of losing him.

As the outnumbered beats of the heart, so raw and so pure,

so are the salient moments when the poison becomes the cure.